Saturday, May 31, 2008

Negotiating with Iran

The reports two years ago that Iran had offered and the Bush Administration had summarily rejected dialogue has a lot to do with my thoughts on Bush's foreign policy and Obama's new direction. A few takeaways:
  1. Part of the more cynical case for war in Iraq was to frighten our enemies and show that we mean business. The Bush Administration foolishly squandered the opportunity to take advantage of that.
  2. Iran may be a rational actor willing to negotiate terms beneficial to both parties.
  3. We lose credibility with the people of Iran as a result of our stubbornness, thereby "emboldening" our enemy Ahmadinejad and other hard-liners in that country.

Also, a lot of the talk about Iran has to do with Ahmadinejad and his personality. However, he may not be around much longer and can't make major foreign policy decisions without the approval of the Supreme Leader.

The Reason for High Gas Prices

Respondents to a Washington Post poll on May 11, 2008:

What do you think is the main reason gasoline prices have gone up recently?
Oil companies/greed/profit - 30
Iraq war - 12
Bush administration - 10
OPEC/foreign oil producers - 9
Market forces - 8
Supply - less gas available or gas production problems - 7
Demand - people driving more - 5
Other political reasons - 4
Time of year/season - *
Supply and demand - *
Other - 5
No opinion - 10
That's a high number blaming "greed" and "profit" in a nation that thinks of itself as capitalistic. The correct answer is "Market Forces".

Oil companies, like every other business, are supposed to make money. That is what their shareholders expect. They invested heavily in a rare commodity and are now reaping the benefits of that investment. There is nothing immoral or unethical about that.

Why do we expect oil companies to charge less than what the market will bear?

Healthy Americans Act

I mentioned Senator Ron Wyden's health care plan. It has a page on Wyden's website Stand Tall for America with a cute little video extolling the benefits of greater portability.



As I said, the idea has Republican support. Republican co-sponsors include Judd Gregg, Chuck Grassley, Norm Coleman, Mike Crapo, Lamar Alexander, and Bob Corker. I heard our own Sen. Isakson describe it favorably recently. I'm not sure if he is ready to put his name on it, but he definitely hinted at support.

P.S. Mr. Wyden, do you have something against those of us who don't stand so tall?

Florida and Michigan

I'm watching the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting.

If the Democrats aren't going to stick to the rules they established, they must seat no more than half of the delegates and split them evenly between Clinton and Obama. That is the only fair and reasonable way to seat any delegates from those two states. Any other decision will be unfair to one candidate and/or the 48 states that obeyed the rules.

This is not Florida in 2000. First, the Democratic party, not the voters, gets to decide who the nominee is. This idea that voters have some right to determine the primary nominee is erroneous. Second, the people of Florida chose to break the rules knowing that their votes wouldn't be counted.

Decisions whether to campaign or vote were based on the rules in place. What about all of the people who didn't vote because they were told it would be a waste of time? Seating Florida and Michigan would disenfranchise them because turnout was lower in Florida and Michigan than in the other primaries.

Clinton's calculated reversal on this is off-putting, but her rhetoric is despicable. It's one thing to do what you have to do to win. It's quite another to claim that an adverse decision is anti-democratic and question the legitimacy of your party's eventual nominee.

My Opening Salvo

Curt's first post is both wide-ranging and limited enough that responding to it will be a good way for me to outline my views.

Curt, beginning with a quote from DJ Toluene:
The Democrats are actually the tax, borrow and spend party. The last Congress (they are the ones who pass budgets) to balance a budget were the Republicans. Now I understand that the Republicans haven't acted that way in a while and that's why they lost in 2006. Now I'm all for punishing them for being as corrupt as the Democrats when it comes to spending but at the same time I'm not going to reward the Democrats. The Republicans are the lesser of two evils. Although the best scenario would be for a McCain presidency with a Democratic Congress. Nothing would get done. We saw what happened when the same party controlled both the Congress and the White House.
You can't punish them by electing them. I know the Democrats are your only other option, so if you see them as equally bad then I understand striking this category of voting criteria as a wash and choosing on other issues. You're right, we did see what happened when the same party controlled both branches. I think I'm far angrier and more deeply upset about the results of that than you. Even if I did not like Obama, I could still vote for a lump of dirt over a Republican candidate based on what's happened over the past 8 years unless the Republican candidate offered up a clear and strong repudiation of most of what the current administration has done and stands for, which of course will never happen.
I have no reason to believe that Democrats will spend less money than the Republicans, but I'm not sure that they can do worse. If spending stays the same, or continues rising, I can at least feel comfortable in two things: (1) the spending will benefit more ordinary Americans; and (2) the taxes will be raised to pay for it.

On the second point, I thnk it's a fallacy to say that Bush has cut taxes. If you don't have a balanced budget, it is impossible to cut taxes. We have to borrow to pay the difference. At least theoretically, the debt must eventually be paid back with interest. Even if we intend to stiff those people who lend us money, we must make regular payments toward the interest on the debt.

Also, I'm no economist, but I think that when Alan Greenspan says that budget deficits contribute to the weak dollar (see here and here), we ought to at least have an honest, in-depth national debate over the budget deficit. Who cares about a weak dollar? Perhaps everybody that is suffering from high gas prices. Yesterday, it was reported that oil futures are falling in part because of a strengthening dollar. Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Alaron Trading:
If the dollar continues to strengthen, it will continue to put downward pressure on the price of oil.
I admit that I have misgivings about universal health care. However, the status quo is not working and we have to do something. I am encouraged that Obama does not seek to take over the health care system, but merely work within the private system by providing an insurance alternative for those who are currently unable to get insurance. You could have a whole blog about the health care system, but I'll just say here that I think the current system is so flawed that we may be able to provide health care for all Americans while cutting costs in other areas (for example, universal health care provides access to physicians so that the poor don't show up at our emergency rooms instead). I also think Wyden's Republican-supported Healthy Americans Act is worth considering.

McCain's long-standing objection to earmarks is admirable, but that won't come close to addressing our spending problem. And I think his other promise to review all discretionary spending will be met with so much resistance that may end up accomplishing nothing. We need to cut entitlements, raise taxes, or both. There are no easy choices here.

Curt, again beginning with a quote from DJ:
Talking to your enemies without preconditions is stupid. And Iran, Syria and North Korea are our enemies. It annoys me that we haven't drilled more domestic oil, and started up more nuclear power plants, use our almost unlimited coal supplies and given more incentives for alternative fuels so we can bankrupt the Middle East.

Talking to your enemies without preconditions might not be the best of all foreign policies. However, it is far less stupid than invading them based on KNOWN FALSE conditions (and lying to the country about it). Dialog is good. The idea that we "embolden" (what a stupid word) our enemies by giving them the time of day is naive, isolationist, and in many ways has led our foreign policy where it is today.

I agree with you regarding domestic oil, nuclear power, etc.

Refusing to talk to our enemies strikes me as childish and contrary to a projection of strength. A superpower ought to be confident enough to look an opponent in the eye and challenge him directly. I have heard no good argument against talking to our enemies. Yes, I feel that way even after our foreign policy genius President compared Obama to the appeasers of the Nazis. Setting aside Godwin's Law, the mistake wasn't talking to Hitler, it was giving him Czechoslovakia.

I am as concerned about the impact of our energy policies on national security as I am about the environment. Therefore, I am open to more use of coal and nuclear power.

Illegal immigration is a problem. Immigration is not. Here's my proposal: Crack down on illegal immigration and increase legal immigration to current combined legal and illegal levels.

I'm a strong supporter of gay marriage, but I understand the sentiment and some of the arguments against it. There'll be plenty of time for that issue later.

I see that DJ trotted out the accusation that Obama has the most liberal voting record in the first post. That's a bogus label.

Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself, I'm a Man of Wealth and Taste.

Thanks to the creators of this blog for inviting me to join in the fray. I'm assuming you got sick of me assaulting your email inboxes with my banal observations on politics.

I'll start by disclosing that I am 100% completely in the tank for Obama. I will reflexively assume that any positive news about Obama is true while doubting the validity of any criticisms.

Ironically, I was 100% completely in the tank for McCain in 2000. My how things change. I believe we're both still good people, we've just grown apart. Ever since he started running around with that obnoxious rich kid.

Still, I am thrilled that I get to vote for the greater of two goods in this exciting and important election.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Slap to the Head

I read a good article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. It talks about how the Republican party in recent years basically became the Democratic party when it comes to spending and expanding government.

I think losing more seats in Congress this fall will be a good wake up call to the Republicans to get their act together. Now, of course I'm going to vote for John McCain and hope that he wins because while I think the Republicans need to be punished for their big-government ways, I don't want to punish the country with a Democratic Congress and White House. I know that as bad as the Republicans are about big-government, the Democrats invented the concept and are much better at it.

Willing To Negotiate

I hope the next president will at least make Iran open up all of it's nuclear facilities to inspectors before they talk to them.

Monday, May 26, 2008

When is an apology not an apology?

This, http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=187 , is an excellent analysis of the classic way that politicians and many public figures love to apologize without apologizing. You cannot apologize for my reaction to something! You can only apologize for what you did. If you said something that offended people, then to apologize you must recant what you said, not the public reaction.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Is America sick of government?

These two polls showing the approval ratings of both President Bush and Congress at all time lows hopefully show that those who cling to government for help and protection, either Republicans or Democrats, will find other things that actually work when tried. Guns and religion perhaps?

Note: I also think it's interesting that Congress has a lower approval rating than the President.

Obama a sure thing?

Interesting article at the Huffington Post about Obama's strategy to win the election this November.

Even if the guy is wrong here (and I don't think he is) and white, working-class Democrats are voting for Clinton because of race, will enough of them vote for Obama to give him the victory in November?

Also, I think McCain represents the best hope for the Republicans when it comes to winning over independent voters. I'm curious to see who he picks for his VP candidate (Obama too for that matter).

Friday, May 23, 2008

HILLARY RAISES ASSASSINATION ISSUE!!!!

Below are several reasons Mr. Obama should sleep with his night light on:

(from http://www.clintonmemoriallibrary.com/clintbodycnt.html)

On September 11, 2001, Barbara Olson died when the airplane she was flying in crashed into the Pentagon. American Airlines flight 77 was reportedly piloted by a suicidal terrorist whose cohorts also crashed planes into the World Trade Center in New York city and in Pennsylvania. Barbara served as the Republican chief counsel for the congressional committeee investigating the Clintons' involvement in Travelgate and Filegate. She also authored two books, "Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton," a scathing expose of Hillary Clinton, and "The Final Days: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House."

I recently read an undocumented and unconfirmed report that yet another Clinton connected person has died of an "apparent" suicide. In March 1999, Eric Fox, who served on Marine One, was found shot in head after his car swerves off road.

On Sunday, February 22nd, 1998, Sandy Hume, the 28 year old son of journalist Britt Hume, was reportedly found dead in his Arlington, Virginia home. Aside from the statement that this was an "apparent" suicide, there remains in place a total media blackout on this story. Hume was a reporter for The Hill magazine, a newspaper about Congress for Congress, and had broken a major story in 1997 regarding the friction between House Speaker Newt Gingrich and a faction led by Representative Paxon (who announced his resignation just 24 hours after Hume's death). 

Sandy had a reputation for getting the story that nobody else wanted to look at, and at the time of his death there reports that "a reporter" who 
was about to break a story confirming the White House's use of investigators to dig up dirt on critics and invstigators. 

The man who performed the as-yet-unreleased autopsy is none other than Dr. James C. Beyer, who has a record of concealing homicides behind a ruling of suicide.

The OctopusDanny Casolaro, a reporter who was investigating several of the Clinton Scandals, wasfound dead in the bathtub of a hotel room in West Virginia on Aug. 10, 1991, with his wrists slit. He had earlier warned his family that his life was in danger and if he was found dead due to an apparent accident or suicide, not to believe it. 

Finishing Casolaro's work, Kenn thomas and Jim Keith wrote, 
The Octopus : The Secret Government and Death of Danny Casolaro. It's a provocative analysis of the mysterious death of journalist Danny Casolaro and discusses the link between the death and high-level government conspiracy involving the Iran-Contra affair, the October Surprise, BCCI, and other political scandals and cover-ups.

On March 3, 1994, Dr. Ronald Rogers, a dentist from Royal, AR, was killed when his twin-engine Cessna crashed near Lawton, OK, in clear weather. He was on his way to see Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a reporter from the "London Sunday Telegraph", to reveal some "dirt" on Clinton.

John A. Wilson, a Washington, D.C. councilman, "hung himself". He allegedly knew a lot about Clinton and was reportedly going to start talking before his death made that impossible.

Gandy Baugh, attorney representing Mr. Lassater in a case concerning alleged financial misconduct, died in an alleged suicide on Jan.8, 1994, by jumping out of a window of a multi-story building. Mr. Lassater was a close associate of Gov. Clinton, and was later indicted on drug related charges, among other things. Baugh's law partner was "suicided" one month later on Feb. 9, 1994.

TailGate

Mary MahoneyIn July 1997, during the pre-trial publicity surrounding the Paula Jones lawsuit, and mere days after Newsweek's Mike Isikoff had dropped hints that a "former White House staffer" was about to go public with her story of sexual harassement at 1600 Pennsylvania, gunmen entered the Starbuck's Coffee shop in Georgetown while the crew was cleaning up. Mary Mahoney, a 25 year old former White House Intern for Bill Clinton, was working as the Assistant Manager. Mary's two associates, Aaron Goodrich, 18 and Emory Evans, 25, were taken to a room and shot. Mary herself had five bullets in her, from at least two different guns, most likely with silencers. A total of ten shots were fired; none of them heard by neighbors in the densely populated Georgetown section. Mary was shot in the chest, her face, and in the back of the head. No money was taken.

Suzanne Coleman had an affair with Bill Clinton when he was Attorney General in Arkansas. On 15 February 1977, she "committed suicide" with a gunshot to the back of the head. No autopsy was performed, but it has been alleged that she was seven-and-a-half months pregnant with Clinton's child, although never proven.

Judy Gibbs, who appeared in the December 1979 issue of Penthouse, and her sister Sharon were part of a house of prostitution in Fordyce, Arkansas that also engaged in blackmail of it's more powerful clients. Linked to Bill Clinton by both her own family and by one of Bill's bodyguards, Judy had just decided to cooperate with police in an investigation of Arkansas cocaine trafficking when she burned to death inside her home from a fire of undetermined origin.

Gary Johnson, an attorney who lived next door to Gennifer Flowers, was beaten severely and left for dead by two thugs who broke into his apartment. It seems he had videotaped some of Clinton's "visits" and had mentioned the existence of the tapes to other people. The intruders made sure THEY TOOK THE "CLINTON-FLOWERS" TAPES after they finished the beating.

Kathy Ferguson, the ex-wife of Arkansas State Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head, in Sherwood, AR. On May 11, 1993, the right-handed Ferguson supposedly shot herself behind the left ear. It was labeled a suicide even though much of the forensic evidence does not support this finding. She died five days after her ex-husband, was named a co-conspirator in the Paula Jones case. Kathy had told friends that Clinton had sexually harassed her in a manner similar to that reported by Paula Jones. She purportedly had knowledge of Clinton's "regulars" and often talked about how Clinton had gotten Danny to bring women to him and stand watch while they had sex. Part of Danny's job was to make sure that each woman was ready and willing when she and Clinton got together. Kathy said she heard that Clinton was really mad when Paula Jones wouldn't "put out".

Bill Shelton, an Arkansas police officer and boyfriend of Kathy Ferguson at the time of her death, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head, in Sherwood, AR. He was shot behind the ear which is usually the sign of an execution. His death was also labeled a suicide. Shelton was highly critical of the conclusion of local police that Kathy had committed suicide and he aired his complaints widely.

Sally Perdue, one of Clinton's "regulars", was offered a $60,000/year federal job to keep her mouth shut; or she would have her legs broken. When she did come forward, she received a series of threats; but luckily for her, the American press mostly ignored her.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the offices of The American Spectator magazine were broken into and ransacked twice in September of 1994 after David Brock returned to Washington, DC from Arkansas to write up his interview of the Arkansas State Troopers. There was also a September break-in at an apartment that the magazine keeps on the upper east side of Manhattan. The three break-ins during Sept. of 1994 are the only ones ever experienced by the magazine in its 27 year history.

Whitewater

People have been beaten and perhaps even killed for trying to expose the background of Webster Hubbell and the dealings of the Rose Law Firm of which he was a partner. Other famous partners in the firm were Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Vincent Foster.

James McDougalJames McDougal was serving his 3 year sentence for bank fraud at the Fort Worth Federal Medical Center in Texas, a facility operated by the federal Bureau of Prisons for inmates who need medical attention. Just prior to another round of testimony before Kenneth Starr's grand jury, Jim McDougal suffered a heart attackwhile in solitary confinement and died March 8, 1998. When Jim McDougal was taken out of solitary, instead of attempting to defibrillate his heart with equipment on hand at the facility, he was driven over to John Peter Smith hospital. Not the closest hospital to the Fort Worth Federal Medical Center, John Peter Smith hospital is a welfare hospital, where (in the words of one local) ,"They let interns practice on deadbeats". 

The single most damning fact to come out of the McDougal death was his injection with Lasix, a diuretic, to force his giving a urine sample for drug testing, even though McDougal was not a known drug case, and Lasix is contra-indicated in cases of heart disease. Lasix can cause excessive diuresis, blood volume reduction, circulatory collapse, and vascular thrombosis, or blood clots. If a matching potassium supplement is not administered at the same time, Lasix can kill.

Vince Foster, a former partner in the Rose Law firm and White House aide, had just been served a subpeona and was supposed to testify about Whitewater. Instead of testifying, he died on July 20, 1993. A suicide note was supposedly found a few days later, torn into several pieces, in his briefcase, after his office had been entered by white house staff and materials removed. (The "suicide" note has since been revealed to be a forgery.) The suicide conclusion does NOT square with the testimony from the man who found the body (the Confidential Witness) or much of the forensic evidence. For example, the gun which he supposedly used to kill himself was reported to be still in his hand, but the person who first found the body reports that there was no gun. A signed report of Medical Examiner, Dr. Donald Haut was uncovered at the National Archives, proving that Foster had a previously unreported gunshot wound to his neck. And, an FBI memo has surfaced dated the day after the date of the official autopsy, in which the autopsies informs the FBI that there was NO exit wound. 

I'm sure Bill Clinton was relieved when the Supreme Court ruled that the attorney-client privilege of confidentiality protects against disclosure of the notes even after a client’s death. That was the plan, after all, wasn't it? 

The Associated Press:Vincent Foster: the death investigation that hasn't ended.

Jon Walker, an investigator for the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), mysteriously "fell" to his death from Lincoln Towers, in Arlington, VA. In March 1992, Walker contacted the Kansas City RTC office for information concerning the ties between Whitewater and the Clintons. He reportedly was looking into a 50 million dollar transfer from an RTC fund in Chicago to Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan to cover up a 47 million dollar embezzlement.

Johnny Franklin Laughton, Jr., and a friend hit a telephone pole at a high rate of speed, Mar. 29, 1998, after their car had become airborne and left the road. They had driven less than 1/4 of a mile at the time of the impact. In the spring of 1997, a tornado ripped through some junked cars at Johnny's transmission and opened up the trunk of a car that proved to have a box of Whitewater records in it, including a copy of a $27,000 cashiers check drawn on Madison and payable to Bill Clinton. Johnny Franklin Laughton, Jr. realized what he was looking at and turned the box of documents over to the FBI.

Campaign Finance

Betty CurrieThe night before White House secretary, Betty Currie, was to testify before the Campaign Finance hearing, her brother, Theodore Williams, Jr., was severely beaten and hospitalized (see Oregonian January 29, 1998 Page A9). Then within one month of her testifying in the Lewinsky Grand Jury her sister was killed in a car "accident"in December 1997.

Ronald Miller died October 12, 1997. Miller is a former co-owner of Creek Systems/Gage Corp., an Oklahoma natural gas company that alleged discrimination by corrupt utility regulators. A court case that could have proved damaging to high-ranking Democrats was averted at the last minute when the Lums helped to purchase Gage Corp. and drop the lawsuit. Miller tape recorded Gene and Nora Lum and turned those tapes (and other records) over to congressional oversight investigators. The Lums were sentenced to prison for campaign finance violations, using "straw donors" to conceal the size of their contributions to various candidates. 

Reportedly a healthy man, Ron suddenly took ill on October 3rd, and steadily worsened until his deah 9 days later. (This pattern fits Ricine poisoning.) Owing to the 
strangeness of the illness, doctors at the Integris Baptist Medical Center referred the matter to the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office who promptly ran tests on samples of Ron Miller's blood, but has refused to release the results or even to confirm that the tests were ever completed.

Ed Willey, the manager of the Clinton presidential campaign finance committee, died of a "self-inflicted" gunshot wound in Nov. '93. He was seen handling briefcases full of cash during the campaign. Mr. Willey died on the same day his wife was allegedly assaulted in the White House by Bill Clinton.

Barbara Alice Wise was employed in the same section of the Commerce Department which was the focus of illegal foreign fundraising. She was found dead in her office at Commerce's International Trade Administration on November 29, 1996.

Jerry Parks, the owner of a security firm that provided security for Clinton's presidential campaign, was gunned down, assassination style, on Sept. 26, 1993 in Little Rock. Now the dead man's son, Gary Parks, charges that his father, who ran American Contract Services Inc., was killed "to save Bill Clinton's political career." Interviewed in the London Telegraph, the younger Parks said "my dad was working on Clinton's infidelities for about six years, starting in the campaign around 1983," and had compiled two name-and-photo-filled files on Mr. Clinton that he kept hidden in his bedroom. 

The Clinton campaign had failed to settle an outstanding debt to Parks for $81,000 at the time of his death. Parks' wife said her husband threatened to go public with his information if Clinton did not pay the bill. Parks' home was broken into only hours before he was murdered. THE ONLY THING TAKEN FROM HIS HOME WAS THE DOCUMENTATION HE HAD ON CLINTON'S "ACTIVITIES".

C. Victor Raiser II, the co-chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign finance committee, was killed in a plane crash on July 30, 1992 near Anchorage, AK, in good weather. With his inside knowledge of the Clinton operation, he had become disillusioned by what he had seen and thus became a potential liability.

The Democratic National Committee political director, Paul Tullydied from unknown causes in his hotel room in Little Rock on September 24, 1992. The Arkansas medical examiner's office ruled the death was because of a massive heart attack.

L.J. Davis, a veteran journalist, was knocked unconscious in a Little Rock hotel. Pages were stolen from his notebook that contained information on the inner workings of the Rose law firm. He later received threats to back off the story. Davis is a contributing editor forHarper's magazine and does free-lance writing for many publications.

Herschel Friday, a member of the Clinton presidential campaign finance committee, was killed when his plane crashed on Mar. 1, 1994 as he approached his private landing strip near his Arkansas home, in a light drizzle.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown was killed when his plane crashed as it approached the Dubrovnik, Croatia airport. Brown had previously been under investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Commerce Department's Inspector General, the Justice Department, the FDIC, and the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee was within two weeks of possibly being indicted for an bribe allegedly paid by Dynamic Energy Resources in Oklahoma. 

A few years ago, a Vietnamese official accused him of asking for a $700,000 or so bribe in exchange for using his influence with Clinton to get sanctions against Vietnam lifted and to open the country up to U.S. trade and investment. After apparently stalling on the issue, the Justice Department convened a grand jury to hear evidence, which could have resulted in a possible criminal indictment. Veteran investigative journalist Sherman Skolnick, commented that 
"There was jury-tampering by President Clinton and his Justice Department. The grand jury proceedings were supposed to be kept secret, yet Brown and his confederates were day by day illegally kept informed, so they could obstruct justice by bribing or terrorizing grand jury witnesses. Brown was not indicted......" 

Brown made sure that Democratic leaders got the message: "I'm too old to go to jail. If I go down, I'll take everyone else down with me." That, of course, would include the Clintons. Brown's oft-repeated warning was clearly heard. Brown's threats may have become his own death warrant.

Brown's plane was probably relying on Croatian ground beacons for navigation. In the minutes before Brown's plane crashed, five other planes landed at Dubrovnik without difficulty, and none experienced problems with the beacons. But additional questions about the beacons and the crash will remain unanswered because, as the Air Force acknowledges, airport maintenance chief Niko Junic died by gunshot just three days after the crash and before he could be interviewed by investigators. Within a day of his death, officials determined the death was a suicide.

Dying along with Ron Brown on April 3, 1996, was Charles Meissner, Assistant Secretay of Commerce. Meissner reportedly had provided special security clearance to John Huang.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Shelley Kelly, a stewardess, survived the crash for some four hours. Kelly and another stewardess had been seated in a jump seat at the very rear of the 737. That area was found basically intact after the crash. According to the Air Force, she received first aid from Croatian rescuers but died on the way to a nearby hospital. Her autopsy report states that Kelly died of a broken neck…"

Ron Brown's high level Muslim associate, Mohamed Ferrat was supposed to be on Ron Brown's doomed death flight, but he changed plans at the last minute. He later died on TWA Flight 800. Coincidence?

Terry Reed, co-author of, Compromised: Clinton, Bush, and the CIA received a death threat while signing copies at a Little Rock Wal-Mart. The book claims that Bill Clinton was involved in more than $9 million a week in cash being secretly air dropped into Arkansas while he was governor. The threat was slipped onto the front seat of his car according to Little Rock Police Information Report Number 94-53155.

Stanley Huggins, a partner in a Memphis law firm, was found dead on June 23, 1994 reportedly from viral pneumonia. Huggins headed a 1987 examination into the loan practices of Madison Savings & Loan. He produced a 300-400 page report that has never been made public.

Drug Smuggling Operations at Mena

Paul Wilcher, an attorney, was found dead in his Washington, D.C. home. The coroner either could not find or did not report the cause of death. At the time of his death, Wilcher was investigating gun-running and the drug business in Mena, AR. Shortly before his death he wrote a 105-page letter to Attorney General Janet Reno describing evidence that he allegedly had concerning Mena. The first page of his letter stated in part; "The lives of key participants, other witnesses, and even myself, are now in grave danger as a result of my passing this information on to you. If you let this information fall into the hands of the wrong persons... some or all of those who know the truth ...could well be silenced in the very near future."

Alder Berriman (Barry) Seal, the head of the cocaine smuggling operation at Mena airport, was murdered

Florence Martin, an accountant who had worked as a sub-contractor for the CIA, was found dead in Mabell, TX, the victim of three gunshot wounds to the head. She had the documents and paperwork as well as the pin number to an account that had been set up in the name of Barry Seal for $1.46 million dollars at the Fuji Bank in the Cayman Islands. 

Kevin Ives, a teenager who lived near Mena, AR, was run over by a train close to Mena. First ruled a suicide, a later autopsy showed he was murdered before he was run over by the train. He may have gotten too curious about air drops he had seen in the nearby countryside. 

Don Henry, a friend of Kevin Ives, was also run over by the train on the same night. His death was initially ruled a suicide, too, but a later autopsy showed he was also murdered before he was run over by the train. 

Keith Coney, an individual who claimed to have information about the deaths of Kevin Ives and Don Henry, was fleeing an attacker on his motorcycle, when he slammed into the back of a truck. Police ruled it a "traffic fatality"

Keith McKaskle, another person who claimed to have information about the Ives-Henry murders, was brutally stabbed to death in his home. He knew someone was after him so he had said goodbye to his friends and family. 

Gregory Collins, another person who claimed to have information about the Ives-Henry murders, died from a shotgun blast in the face

Jeff Rhodes, another person who claimed to have information about the Ives-Henry murders, was shot in the head. His burned body was found in the city dump, with his hands, feet, and head partially severed. 

Richard Winters, another person who claimed to have information about the Ives-Henry murders, was killed by a man using a sawed-off shotgun. 

Jordan Ketelson, another person who claimed to have information about the Ives-Henry murders, died of a shotgun blast to the head.

Assault on Waco

Steve Willis - ATF Agent & Former Clinton bodyguard 
Robert Williams - ATF Agent & Former Clinton bodyguard 
Conway LeBleu - ATF Agent & Former Clinton bodyguard 
Todd McKeehan - ATF Agent & Former Clinton bodyguard 
Died on Feb. 28, 1993, or perhaps "executed" by gunfire in the Waco, Texas assault on the Branch Davidians. All four were examined by a "private doctor" and died from nearly identical wounds to the left temple, so-called execution style. According to Linda Thompson, videotapes and other evidence indicates that none died from guns fired by Branch Davidians. 

In the videotape by the American Justice Federation, "WACO II, the Big Lie Continues," Linda Thompson demonstrates that 15 shots were fired from six separate weapons into and out of a room into which three of the four agents had entered through a window. Four of these shots were fired from an overhead helicopter, at least two shots were fired into the room by an agent outside the window, firing an MP5 submachine gun, who also threw in a concussion grenade. In the autopsies of these agents, three had virtually identical wounds to the left temple that exited through the rear of the head, execution-style.

In his address to employees of the Treasury Department in the Cash Room on March 18, 1993, Clinton said: "My prayers and I'm sure yours are still with the families of all four of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents who were killed in WACO -- Todd McKeehan and Conway Le Bleu of New Orleans; Steve Willis of Houston, and Robert Williams from my hometown of Little Rock. Three of those four were assigned to my security during the course of the primary or general election." However, the Little Rock, Arkansas office of the ATF confirmed that all four had at one point been bodyguards for Bill Clinton, three while he was campaigning for President, and while he had been governor of Arkansas.

Dead Bodyguards

Maj. Gen. William Robertson - Deputy Commanding General, V Corps, Europe 
Col William Densberger - V Corps Chief of Operations and Plans 
Col. Robert Kelly - V Corps Chief of Intelligence
Spec. Gary Rhodes - Crew Chief
All were 
killed Feb. 23, 1993, when their Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed in Weisbaden, Germany. No cause was ever determined. V Corps figured prominently in the US Bosnia-Serbia peacekeeping operations, along with the carrier Roosevelt. These men, and 8 others associated with Clinton's visit to the Roosevelt all died within 4 months of each other.

Staff Sgt. Brian Haney - Clinton bodyguard
Marine Sgt. Tim Sabel - Clinton bodyguard
Maj. William Barkley - Clinton bodyguard
Capt. Scott Reynolds - Clinton bodyguard
All four men died May 19, 1993 when their 
helicopter crashed in the woods near Quantico, Va. Reporters were barred from the site, and the head of the fire department responding to the crash described it by saying, "Security was tight," with "lots of Marines with guns." A videotape made by a firefighter was seized by the Marines. All four men had escorted Clinton on his flight to the carrier Roosevelt shortly before their deaths.

Alan G. Whicher oversaw Clinton's Secret Service detail. In October 1994 Whicher was transferred to the Secret Service field office in the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Whatever warning was given to the BATF agents in that building did not reach Alan Whicher, whodied in the bomb blast of April 19th 1995.

Luther Parks, head of Clinton's Gubernatorial security team in Little Rock, was gunned down in his car at the intersection of Chanaul Parkway and Cantrell Road, near Jacksonville, Arkansas on September 26, 1993. Parks was shot through the rear window of his car. The assailant then pulled around to the driver's side of Park's car and shot him three more times with a 9mm pistol.

His family reported that shortly before his death, they were being followed by unknown persons, and their home had been broken into (despite a top quality alarm system). Parks had been compiling a dossier on Clinton's illicit activities. The dossier was stolen. When news of the discovery of Vincent Foster's body came over the news, Parks is reported to have said,"Bill Clinton is cleaning house".


Thursday, May 22, 2008

Politi Blog Book Club

Instead of using this blog to bash the candidates from both sides (not that we can't do that), do you guys want to read some political books and discuss the merits of the arguments in those books? I say we could do one or two a month.

Update with suggestions for books within this post and then next week we could start reading one of them.

My first suggestion is this book
And here is my suggestion for the second book

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

An opening salvo?

This is an excerpt from an email debate between DJ Toluene and myself. I'm responding to his email, and I've included both as a point of reference to begin the public discussion. I'll let you figure out who is voting for who.


Don't be so sure that Obama is going to be the next president. You already owe me $20 for thinking that Hillary was going to be the next president.
I'll be quite happy to pay that $20.

The Democrats are actually the tax, borrow and spend party. The last Congress (they are the ones who pass budgets) to balance a budget were the Republicans. Now I understand that the Republicans haven't acted that way in a while and that's why they lost in 2006. Now I'm all for punishing them for being as corrupt as the Democrats when it comes to spending but at the same time I'm not going to reward the Democrats. The Republicans are the lesser of two evils. Although the best scenario would be for a McCain presidency with a Democratic Congress. Nothing would get done. We saw what happened when the same party controlled both the Congress and the White House.

You can't punish them by electing them. I know the Democrats are your only other option, so if you see them as equally bad then I understand striking this category of voting criteria as a wash and choosing on other issues.
You're right, we did see what happened when the same party controlled both branches. I think I'm far angrier and more deeply upset about the results of that than you. Even if I did not like Obama, I would still vote for a lump of dirt over a Republican candidate based on what's happened over the past 8 years unless the Republican candidate offered up a clear and strong repudiation of most of what the current administration has done and stands for, which of course will never happen.


And if you think the war cost a lot wait until we have universal health care. A war doesn't last forever (in fact I don't think that we'll be in Iraq much longer, but entitlements do.

My objection to the war is not an economic one. I think that's a very serious side effect, but not the main issue. I only raise that point to rebut the idea that the Republican party is in any way the party of fiscal responsibility. Regardless of cost, Universal Health Care will not kill hundreds of thousands of civilians and thousands of US troops, or create a more turbulent and dangerous Iraq and thus Middle East.

McCain's economic plan calls for an end to earmark spending and a freeze to the budget for a year to review all aspects of government spending. He's actually been a big proponent of this for a long time.

If he's elected and actually does this, then I'll be the first to applaud him. However, call me cynical, but I'll believe it when I see it. McCain very much seems to me like politics as usual and the Republican party as usual (as defined by the last 8 years).

Talking to your enemies without preconditions is stupid. And Iran, Syria and North Korea are our enemies. It annoys me that we haven't drilled more domestic oil, and started up more nuclear power plants, use our almost unlimited coal supplies and given more incentives for alternative fuels so we can bankrupt the Middle East.

Talking to your enemies without preconditions might not be the best of all foreign policies. However, it is far less stupid than invading them based on KNOWN FALSE conditions (and lying to the country about it). Dialog is good. The idea that we "embolden" (what a stupid word) our enemies by giving them the time of day is naive, isolationist, and in many ways has led our foreign policy where it is today.
I agree with you regarding domestic oil, nuclear power, etc.

And building a fence for Mexicans. Why shouldn't we keep out illegal immigrants? I'm all for making it easier for people to come to this country but at the same time we shouldn't allow people we don't know into the country.

I have no problem with keeping out illegal immigrants. I have a problem with much of our immigration policy, but I don't think we disagree on that. What bothers me about the way it's currently implemented is that it is indicative of the fear-mongering and base appeasing policies of the Republican party. Can you seriously tell me that a fence that costs billions is actually about security when it cuts through American homes 30 miles North of the border only to stop for a Bush connected golf resort and resume on the other side? http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2688

As far as gay marriage and abstinence programs go, the Evangelicals don't control the party. They may all vote Republican but if they truly controlled the Party, Huckabee would be the nominee. McCain is the farthest thing from an Evangelical And I didn't realize that McCain's platform included those things. And that's irrelevant in my book because I voted against that amendment in GA and I don't think sex-ed should be taught in school. It's the parents responsibility to teach their kids this type of stuff. I also think that abstinence programs don't work because every other aspect of society says that it's stupid and you should follow your feelings without having to worry about the consequences.

I actually agree with you regarding much of your view on gay marriage. However, I come to a different conclusion from the agreed upon points. Marriage should not be a government issue. We agree. However, IT IS. Fact. Heterosexual couples enjoy certain legal rights and benefits that gay couples do not. We use the term marriage because it's traditional. The pragmatic fact is that it will not be called something else just to make the case (that you and I both believe is the way it should be) that it should be a religious/personal issue and not governmental. As it will not change, I believe the greater evil is to deny certain people rights that others have on a semantic issue. Whether or not you think it should be like this, calling it marriage does not automatically make it religious. Reality is that in our society there is a civil component to marriage. Call it marriage, call it church marriage vs. state marriage, call it marriage and civil unions, just don't give some people rights that others don't have.

But what I really want to know is: Why are you voting for Obama (I assume you're voting for him)? I can understand not wanting to vote for a Republican at this point but why do you want to vote for the most liberal member of the Senate (based solely on his voting record)?

It's a flawed question. I'm not voting for him based solely on his voting record. I've mentioned my cynicism above. You both know it to be true. I'm a skeptic as well. However, in Barack Obama I've found the first politician that I've ever paid attention to that doesn't seem to play the game in the classic mudslinging do what you must to win way. He's a black man (half, mixed, whatever) that remarkably managed to keep that from being a primary issue. He's of Muslim heritage, and (outside of Kentucky) he's remarkably managed to keep that from being an issue. I believe (call me naive, I was wrong about Hillary winning) that he is genuinely different from all the politicians we're used to. For example, did you see his speech on race after the initial Rev. Wright kerfuffle? John Steward put it best when said, "at 11:00 on a Tuesday, a prominent politician spoke to Americans about race, as though they were adults." It was the first time I've ever been addressed regarding a serious issue from a national pulpit without any pandering, base appeasing, or really... politics.

I may not be a huge fan of Universal Health Care (though I'm not the rabid opponent you guys are), and I might want taxes to be lowered more than I can reasonably expect from any Democratic candidate. However, in many ways this is still a foreign policy election to me. Iraq may be winding down. Regardless, McCain has been a champion of the Bush plan from the get go, while Obama has been a vocal opponent for as long. As Bush's plan has been mostly proven to be deeply deeply flawed, based on lies and deception, and used to curtail many domestic civil liberties then the fact that 1 candidate said yes and the other said no speaks volumes to me about their judgment. Obama made the right call, and McCain got it wrong. In addition, as strongly as I believe that W has reacted to it almost perfectly wrong, I do believe that there is a serious worldwide conflict between Fundamentalist Islam and the democratic freedoms of Western society that we all value so much. That said, who has a greater chance of actually making a difference in this sphere? Another old, rich, white man with a gun, or a younger, newer, mixed guy with a voice? That's why I'm voting Obama, and happily.